Month: February 2015

Howdy? It’s Mr. Wada on duty. What do you have with your drink? Cookies? Cakes? Pies? There are varieties of food at cafes but at home I suppose you just buy something and grab right? Lemme tell you about my favorite tea-time snack lately. It is called SWEET POTATO CAKE…ordinary? Hmp! But but…can you believe that you can make it in a half hour!!?? Here’s a recipe of an easy homemade tea snack.

Why Ice Cream?

5 Steps for Making Sweet Potato Cakes

Step 1

Peel sweet potatoes, chop them in dice.

Step 2

Microwave the chopped sweet potatoes for about 5 minutes until it gets cooked. I use this plastic container for microwaving (it comes with a cover). Or you can just have them in a bowl/plate, wrap by saran wrap and microwave.

By the way, microwave cooking has been sorta trend in Japan last several years (it’s been a while though). There are many items like this. I may show you more recipes using this method another time.

Step 3

Take the sweet potatoes out and now mush them! And here comes ice cream. Mix them well.

Note: A few drops of rum would give it a great flavor. Got one in your kitchen? Then give it a try.

Step 4

Grab some of the mashed sweet potatoes and form it as sweet potato cakes. Its shape should be like the one below but you can shape it any way as you like. It won’t differ its taste anyway.

Note: Spreading beaten egg yolk over the sweet potato cakes would make it shiny (not a must but it’d look nicer with this).

Step 5

It’s ready to be cooked. Throw them into the toaster. It’s an ordinary toaster that I use every morning. Toast for 10 minutes.

Hi guys, it’s Mrs. Wada here back on duty. Do you eat yogurt? How often? I eat yogurt every morning except when I’m in a hurry, or I ran out and forgot to make one. Yes, you read it right – I make my own yogurt. Have you tried to make your own yogurt at home? It’s nothing difficult actually.

Last year, I heard from someone about making yogurt using (almost) any yogurt product you can get from supermarket with a yogurt maker. When I heard about the word “yogurt maker”, I imagined it would be bulky and expensive. But I was very interested with the idea that I can make my own yogurt with a yogurt product of my preference as a yogurt starter. So, I immediately checked the nearest big supermarket in my neighborhood and hoping to find the yogurt maker I heard of. Lucky! There is one last item left and without no hesitation I bought it right then and there.

This the yogurt maker I bought.

It’s quite simple concept – it maintains the same temperature necessary for yogurt making. I got this for around 2,000 yen, that’s around $17. Of course, you can get it in a cheaper price at online stores but I was just too excited to try it immediately.

As you may already know, one of the benefits we can get from eating yogurt is good digestion. But there is one yogurt product in Japan that claims to be good for immune system. I bought it for few times already but it’s a bit pricey compared to others. So, I thought it would be a good chance to make my own yogurt with the yogurt maker I just got. Now, let’s get it going.

Other things you will need:

Procedure:

1. If your milk is in a Tetra Pak carton, place it inside the microwave without opening and heat it up for 2 minutes. Set it aside.

Heat up your milk

(I have 700 watt of microwave and I heat it up for 2 minutes. The temperature of the milk must not be more than 40 degrees. Adjust the time for heating up depending on your microwave.)

2. Get your plain yogurt. Don’t open it yet. Shake it until you think it gets watery inside.

3. Mix the heated milk and yogurt well. You can pour the yogurt directly to the milk carton or use a plastic container. I prefer to use a separate container so I can scoop the finished yogurt easily.

4. Plug your yogurt maker and place the container inside.

5. That’s it! You just need to wait for 10 hours until it thickens.

If the consistency is still not thick enough after 10 hours, you can leave it for another hour or so. I usually prepare it early night, so it will be ready by morning.

This is what I’ve made.

This is just one option you can try. Buying a yogurt at supermarket might be the easiest thing to do, but it’s also nice to have an option of making your own yogurt at home, with no extra sugar and preservatives.

That’s it for now. I hope you’ll give it a try too. If you got questions, feel free to ask me and drop us your comment below.